Sheryl Sandberg Is Teaching a New Free Online Course on Mental Toughness

When it comes to the school of hard knocks, Sheryl Sandberg is, sadly, a star pupil. The Facebook executive and Lean In author got a tragic master class in resilience and bouncing back from searing loss when her husband died unexpectedly while the couple was on vacation in 2015.

In an effort to make something good come from something truly awful, Sandberg later turned that wrenching experience into her book Option B

Resilience is a skill you can learn

The quick course consists of nine videos of around two to three minutes each that delve into topics including how to talk to others who have experienced a loss, how to raise resilient kids, how to take back joy after a setback, and the importance of gratitude, even in the face of hardship.

It’s built upon a simple but powerful idea: Resilience isn’t something you have, it’s something you build. Rather than a character trait, grit is a skill you learn.

“I remember asking Adam, ‘How much resilience do I have? How do I figure it out? How much do my kids have?'” Sandberg recalls of the dark time following her husband’s passing in the emotional introductory video. “He said it was the wrong question. The question is not how much resilience do you have, because there’s not a fixed amount. You build resilience. So what I should be asking him is, ‘How do I build resilience?'”

“It’s a skill set that we work on throughout our lives,” agrees Grant in the video, who cautions that the time to learn extreme mental toughness isn’t after you face a loss or a setback. “It’s something we can build long before we face any kind of tragedy or difficulty.”